Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Back when I was taking Greek classes, we were too poor to afford anything as nice as BibleWorks (which is great for exegesis). For my daily Bible computing needs, I used e-Sword.

e-Sword is a excellent free Bible program. The modules are based on Microsoft Access so you can build your own modules if need be. Some modules with copyrighted materials can be purchased from third parties (Rick Meyers, who wrote the program, doesn't sell anything). It is donation based and I believed enough in it that I gave even during our poor seminary days; I would encourage you to donate as well if you use it.

That said, I built several e-Sword modules. For example, I owned both the NASB and NIV in other formats and converted them to e-Sword myself. Once they became available for purchase, however, I could not use them in good conscience. However, the following modules are redistributable.

HaitianI put together the Haitian Créole Bible for a missionary brother in Haiti. The install will locate your e-Sword folder and extract directly to it; just restart e-Sword to see the Haitian modules.

GreekWhen I was studying Greek, I could not find a usable, free version of the Nestle-Aland text offline. So, I found the CCAT text (about NA26 text) and Nestle-Aland 26th edition module (original ZIP package). Later, I discovered that I did not use final sigmas for the text, but I was willing to live with it. A user by the name of Bruno Neuckermans figured out what password I used and fixed them.

So, if you want the NA26 module, download my original ZIP and extract the contents to your e-Sword directory. You may want to (maybe even should) download Bruno's corrections to overwrite my module. The NA26-.BBL file will give you hints to help in translation, but won't do all the work for you.

This BBL module contains the text with diacritcal marks and punctuation, but not the critical apparatus. You may want to use this in conjunction with the e-Sword module GNT-V for basic textual criticism, but I recommend you buy a hard copy of the UBS4, with the dictionary.

P.S. Even if you re-upload the file to another site,please link back to this post in casethere are any updates, like Bruno's. Thanks.